


Who You Are

by flickerthenflare



Category: Glee
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode Related, M/M, Romance, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 09:08:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3604449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickerthenflare/pseuds/flickerthenflare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The issue of names comes up during the reception. Set during 6x08 (“A Wedding”).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who You Are

Blaine basks in the post-ceremony congratulations. He thought he knew how his often dreamed of wedding day would go, but now he knows he never could have predicted what it’s like to experience the simultaneous elation and contentment. Lavish plans are nice, and Santana and Brittany have tastes that Blaine can appreciate, but what he loves most is the sheer volume and intensity of support from their loved ones. It’s the best daydream-from-an-isolated-teenager come true. He beelines toward the cake – in the midst of dancing and toasts he misses out on eating – and each step along the way there is someone new offering a hug and a wish for a happy future.

“Congratulations, Mr. Anderson-Hummel,” Jane says sweetly when he reaches her. She radiates hope, and though Blaine has long forgiven her for switching from the Warblers to the New Directions, perhaps she hasn’t realized how silly holding a grudge would be.

Blaine almost feels bad for balking.

“Oh, no. No. Nope. That’s…no. Just Mr. Anderson.” He regains his composure enough to add a, “thank you” he hopes she takes sincerely.

Rachel overhears and interrupts her conversation with Kurt mid-sentence to scold him too fast and too loud for Blaine’s head to not turn.

“Kurt, we both know you get weirdly possessive about what should be yours and only yours, but Blaine is your _husband_ now, and you have to learn to share instead of repeating your past mistakes. It’s just a name. Six whole letters. You can let him have that much.”

Kurt’s lip curls, but with admiration instead of a snarl. It’s like Rachel’s words don’t land at all. When he speaks, it’s directed at Blaine. “You’re so hot when you say what you want.”

“Not wanting any part of your last name is hot?” Blaine’s nose scrunches in disbelief. “You are turned on by the weirdest things.”

Rachel responds with an infectious belly laugh that has Kurt chuckling too. He gives a look that asks if Blaine really wants to play this game. Blaine takes the opportunity to sneak a bite of Kurt’s cake. If he knew he was getting married today, he would've made sure to eat first. The frosting melts on his tongue. He has always loved wedding cake. It's too rich and too sweet and Blaine used to wish he were invited to more weddings just to get another taste.

“When did you have time to get on the same page here? You are on the same page, right? I’ll take back all I said if you are.” Rachel’s voice returns to appropriate volumes for a private conversation in the semi-indoors of an Indiana barn.

“It’s not for us,” Kurt agrees. He slips the dessert plate Blaine keeps sneaking bites from into Blaine’s hands. Blaine grins his appreciation.

How strongly he feels that name changes aren’t for them surprises Blaine. After all, what better way to prove that marriage made them different than by actually changing who they were? And when he proposed, he so badly wanted to prove that marrying Kurt would make him different – stronger and less insecure and less broken than how he was.

In the better part of a year Blaine spent planning their wedding, he considered all the options. Alphabetical order put Blaine’s name first, but since most of their friends called them “Kurt and Blaine” instead of “Blaine and Kurt,” maybe it made the most sense to keep the same order and let Kurt’s last name go first too. Or they could become the Anderhummels, which might have appealed to Kurt because while the portmanteau would lose part of Blaine’s name, it would keep all of Kurt’s. Or they could pick a brand new name like Rachel’s dads, although they would both gravitate toward the more theatrical and end up as Kurt and Blaine Luxottica. At times when his family frustrated him, he wondered what it would be like to go through life as Blaine Hummel.

He didn't let himself think too long on what it meant that he was willing to become Blaine Hummel but he assumed Kurt would never consider becoming Kurt Anderson. He would be anyone Kurt wanted if Kurt would just let him know who that was. The disconcerted feeling of imbalance he didn’t want to name held him back from offering. 

Now, with the wedding neither of them planned but decided they both wanted, his knee-jerk reaction is he doesn't want Kurt’s name, and he doesn’t want Kurt to have his. Is feels like either selfishness or progress, but he leans toward the latter. He has spent too many therapy sessions on being okay being Blaine Anderson and all that entails. On seeing himself as whole without Kurt. He doesn't want having Kurt back to change how he defines who he is. 

Kurt studies Blaine, who realizes he’s been lost in thought.

“You know I mean it, right? I like you as who you are now,” Kurt says.

“I know.” Blaine knows that look on Kurt’s face. That _I've been looking for you forever_ one he's so glad to see reflected back. They may be whole enough on their own, but he wants to have Kurt by his side anyway.

“You don’t change who you are for me, and I won’t change who I am for you. We’ve got til-death-do-us-part to figure out what ‘who we are’ means.” Kurt holds out his pinkie for a promise.

“That’s Santana and Brittany’s thing.” Blaine extends his pinkie anyway.

“We’ll just steal everything of theirs,” Kurt laughs. “It’s fine. Maybe that’s part of who we are too. It’s definitely today’s theme.”

Blaine brushes his nose against Kurt’s and makes the deal their own.


End file.
